1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to checkout systems for retail businesses and, more particularly, to a checkout system having a scale for weighing objects for purchase.
2. Background Information
General merchandise stores and retail grocery, supermarket, or food stores utilize retail purchase transaction terminals or checkout systems such as assisted and non-assisted (self) checkout systems (collectively, checkout systems) to consummate the purchase transaction. These checkout systems generally include a scale for weighing produce and other items that are sold on the basis of weight. The scale measures weight of an item or multiple items for the checkout system to calculate a total price. An example of multiple items is a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples.
These checkout systems also typically include a scanner that is operative to read a bar code or uniform product code (UPC) that is on the item or at least one of the items. The bar code is used to identify the item(s) or contents of a bag of items. Once an item is scanned, the checkout system then knows to interrogate the scale to obtain a settled weight.
However, in the case of multiple items or a bag of items, typically the items or bag of items is placed on the scale while one of the items is lifted or removed so that its bar code can be read by the scanner. Almost immediately after the bar code is read, the checkout system interrogates the scale to obtain a weight of the items. The obtained weight is then used to calculate price. Since the items or bag of items is one item short, the obtained weight is not accurate.
It would thus be advantageous to have a checkout system that alleviates the above-noted shortcomings and/or problems in current checkout systems.
What is therefore needed is a checkout system that overcomes one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks. What is particularly needed is a checkout system that implements weighing of items in a more effective manner than the prior art.